NITI Aayog to rank 115 aspirational districts by April 2018

Government think-tank National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has announced to rank 115 backward (aspirational) districts by April 2018. It was announced at ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ conference.

These 115 backward districts include 35 districts affected by Left Wing Extremists (LWE) violence, 55 districts just affected by LWE and another 15 including districts in Jammu and Kashmir and northeast affected by terrorism.

Key Facts

These 115 backward districts will be ranked on 10 socio-economic parameters which will include nutrition, education and health. Moreover NITI Aayog will also set up a mechanism for real-time monitoring of government’s development programmes by April 2018. It will also create dashboard which will reflect change in ranking of districts on continuous basis by the end of March 2018.

Background

The Union Government had selected 115 backward districts for rapid transformation by 2022 in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to create a “New India” over the next five years. During the Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ conference, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked collectors and officers-in- charge (Prabhari Officers) of the 115 aspirational districts to come up with pioneering innovations to achieve visible results for development. Government has embarked upon major policy initiative for rapid transformation of these 115 districts that are lagging on specific development parameters.